Initiative for Democratic Socialism (Slovenia)

November 27, 2014 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Miha Kordiš (pictured above) is
a member of the Slovenian national parliament for the Initiative for Democratic
Socialism (IDS), a radical left political party, which is part of the United
Left electoral front.

* * *

Miha,
could you tell us about recent developments of the United Left in Slovenia? You’ve
had national parliamentary elections, the European election and, more recently,
local elections. How do you feel it all went?

The Radnička fronta (Workers’ Front, Croatia) has been recently
founded and often calls itself the "Croatian Syriza". Could you tell us
something more about the emergence and program of the Workers' Front? Who are
you, how many are you, what do you stand for?

The Workers' Front was founded in May 2014 by a group of
workers, trade unionists, students, activists and unemployed. Our goal
is to create a broad progressive platform, combining the activity of a
political party with direct action at the workplaces and political
activism in general.

At the centre of our mission is the provision of a
coherent critique of the capitalist system, and together with other
progressive groups, to employ direct strategies against it. We think that a
fundamental change of Croatian politics and society is necessary because
the capitalist system, which is currently on the offensive in
dismantling the remnants of welfare state, is inherently producing
inequality, destroying the environment and increasing the ability of
rich and the powerful to live off the work of the oppressed and the
neglected, while simultaneously diminishing the latter’s ability to
influence the political process in any meaningful way.

James
Robertson: Let’s start with a brief history of the Initiative for
Democratic Socialism (IDS) and its role in the formation of the Združena
levica (UL, United Left) earlier this year. What are the origins of
IDS?

Anej Korsika: The Initiative for Democratic Socialism, to use the old cliche,
has a short history and a long past. Officially, the party was founded
on March 8 this year. However when one wants to grasp the
gradual formation of the party, one needs to take into consideration a
much longer timeline.

July 14, 2014 -- Transform! Network, posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- We have broken the vicious circle of anti-communism in the post-Yugoslav context. As you imagine we are more than happy to present you
with such an amazing election result! As all the commentators
say, the United Left Coalition (ULC) was the biggest surprise. But the
path was difficult, the ULC was from early on marginalised by the mainstream.

[The ULC was formed for the May 25, 2014, European elections. It is composed of the Party for Sustainable Development (TRS), the Democratic
Labor Party (DSD) and the Initiative for Democratic Socialism (IDS).]

March 19, 2014 -- Links Internaional Journal of Socialist Renewal -- On March 8, the Initiative for Democratic Socialism (IDS) had its founding congress and officially transformed itself into a political party. In the invitation to the congress we have written that in the last 20 years all political parties in Slovenia have been representatives of one and the same fraction, the fraction of capital. We have emphasised that it is high time Slovenia gets a proper socialist party that openly and consciously represents a socialist alternative to both the crisis in Slovenia as well as the crisis in European Union.

The ideological dominance of capitalism as the only
feasible mode of production is coming to an end. In the
second half of the 1970s, when rapid and stable economic
growth came to a halt in the "developed" world, the forces
of capital intensified their attack on workers’ rights
that has not ceased to this day. The foundation on which
the ideological domination of capitalism was based had
started to wither away, and the advocates of capitalism
increasingly justified its existence by turning to the
mere fact of its existence.